China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. (762), the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier, said online reservations for Apple Inc.’s new iPhone 5C and 5S have passed 100,000 units since the devices were unveiled last week.
China Unicom, which announced the volume of registrations on its official account with Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblog, hasn’t disclosed pricing plans for the handsets which are due to go on sale Sept. 20.
Pedestrians walk past a China Telecom Corp. store in Beijing. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
The new Apple Inc. iPhone 5C is displayed for a photograph during a product announcement in Cupertino, California. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Apple unveiled the 5S and 5C models for the networks of China Unicom and China Telecom Corp. (728) last week as it tries to stem a declining share in the world’s largest mobile-phone market. That goal may be challenged by reduced support from carriers looking to reign in costs with China Telecom announcing subsidies on the iPhone 5C and 5S that analysts estimate are about 15 percent less than offered for the earlier model.
“The plan is more conservative this time,” Eva Yip, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sun Hung Kai Financial Ltd., said of China Telecom’s announced iPhone subsidy. “The handset subsidy as a percentage of upfront payment is less than that of the iPhone 5 plan.”
A China Telecom monthly plan costing 289 yuan ($47) for the iPhone 5S carries a subsidy of 2,890 yuan, 15 percent less than the 3,400 yuan for the iPhone 5 on the same plan, according to Yip. Jacky Yung, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for China Telecom, declined to comment on Yip’s estimates.
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